It's almost unfair, isn't it?

Question

That wild animals like apes and gorilla are super-strong compared to humans, huh? I heard those big apes and gorillas are a lot stronger than even professional wrestlers and those guys in the "World's Strongest Man" competition. All those apes and gorillas do is just run around, swing around on vines, and eat bananas. They don't practice weight lifting on a continual basis like muscle-bound human beings do, it's seems sort of unfair.

Why is this?

And just how strong are these animals compared to

pro wrestlers and "World's Strongest Man" competitors?

Answer 1

yes 2+ points baby...booya

Answer 2

When we, supposedly, broke away from the ape, it wasn't just "SUPER" strength that we lost, we lost super sight, super hearing and super speed etc.  And we are supposed to have "ADVANCED" into humans, using ONLY our super brains and intelligence (wherever that came from).  Why isn't there an "evolved" human with all these super powers, or an "evolved" ape, with super intelligence???!!!

Again, something doesn't fit?

Answer 3

As someone above said, it's an energy issue.  We simply don't need to be so muscular, so why would we bother?  I mean, our ancestors didn't sit around, deciding to lose muscle mass.  It's just that a smaller human with a big brain is probably just as successful as a human with big muscles, plus that small human's got the advantage of not needing as much fuel, so we lost strength over the millennia.  Brains as big as the ones we've got are a definite advantage over strength.  I mean, who's the most feared predator out there?  It's us.  The other primates may be strong, the big cats have really sharp teeth, and snakes have venom, but we have guns and tanks and, if it really comes to that, thermonuclear weapons.  We win.

No one really has a definite answer, but the Straight Dope did the best they could with this question.  http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_...  They claim a male gorilla could probably lift 1800 pounds without a problem, and chimps are known to lift 600 pounds easily.  Googling has revealed that the average young man deadlift about 150 - 200 lbs.

Answer 4

The two hungriest types of tissue in the human body are muscle tissue and brain tissue, with brain tissue leading significantly. A species must choose which to feed more, which would be more advantages. One can only spend so much time eating, For us it turned out to be Brains. We are, to quote Stephen Pinker, "the original 'Revenge of the Nerds.' " By becoming smarter, we began to develop things that are a replacement to brute strength, that is technology. And the experiment, apparently never preformed to the degree we did, was a resounding success, we may be wimpy compared to a gorilla, but whose the endangered species now, hm? Hopefully though, we will be able to use our smarts to help our muscle bound cousins survive the coming century's.

Answer 5

gorillas actually do protect territory and fights their own kinds for females often than you think

I guess humans fight more with our brains than musclis

Answer 6

I assure you that animals in the wild are far more muscular and strong than zoo animals, which tend to be weak and fat. Gorillas are strong due to a genetic predisposition to it. Humans have lost the strength that our ape forebears likely had, because we don't need it as much. Instead, we have tools that make us able to do things without such strength.

Answer 7

"There ain't no free lunch."  The kind of muscles that allow apes (even light weight chimps) to toss humans around require a lot more food to keep them going.  That is one of the reasons the Neandertal (whose women were stronger than our strongest male weight lifters) are extinct.  Lighter bones & muscles allow Homo sapiens to endure periods of famine & require less food (even in the rest state.)